


Abomination

by Bravehardt, Foxglove_Fiction



Series: Halloween 2019 [1]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Body Horror, Curses, Dedication, Fluff, Getting Together, Halloween, Horror Elements, Insecure Stephen Strange, Kinda Fluffy, M/M, Monsters, Slight Vampirism Themes, Spooky, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony's a good bro, body transformation, horror and fluff, what a weird combination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 13:16:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21180044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bravehardt/pseuds/Bravehardt, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Foxglove_Fiction/pseuds/Foxglove_Fiction
Summary: Tony had plans for Halloween that involved maybe, possibly, hopefully encouraging a certain Doctor to go out with him. Curses were not in his plans.





	Abomination

**Author's Note:**

> The first of four Halloween-themed fics we have to share with you guy in the next week! Everything is pretty in the shadows, so if you're worried about the 'body horror' part it's fairly tame? (But hey, I love horror in general, so maybe I'm a bad judge ~Amy) Still, it was a lot of fun to write, and we hope that you all enjoy!

Once again Tony found himself at the steps of the Sanctum Sanctorum, rapping at the old ornate doors for passage. The foundation rasped eerily as Tony looked up. The building always seemed to have a temperament to it in Tony's experience, and he could read the damn building like another human being, it was kind of ominous in a way.

This was always the vexing part, standing out on the stoop of some old  _ junky  _ building in Greenwich like an idiot waiting for the thing to decide whether or not to let him in. 

There were no handles on the doors and no one really ever answered when he was there beckoning to be let in. Usually, some shmuck stopped to take a picture of him and draw attention to the mogul - and while he was customarily a fan of the spotlight, sometimes his resignation wore too thin for such encounters.

Like today.

He sometimes felt the building was taunting him, antagonizing him. As much as he could read it's vehemence, it could read his - a two way street in some delinquent game. 

A stand-off so to speak.

In many ways, the lair shared the same temperament as the doctor who lived within. Quiet, discreet, but one always had a sense they were being mocked or judged.

The doors eventually parted and he took a step forward to shove them open further as if expecting them not to have been so lazy in his presence. As per eighty-percent of the time, he would walk into the very empty atrium of the Sanctum and managed to bump into either Wong or the cloak before he found the doctor whom he was here to meet of all people or presences within the building.

"Stark, it's not a suitable time for you to be here."  _ Ah, the first of the kids to run down and answer the doorbell. _

"I won't be long, I just wanted to talk to Stephen for a moment." The cloak fluttered along behind Wong, curiously.

_ And there was the second. _

"I highly advise against that, Stephen is currently _ indisposed, _ " Wong didn't really seem to be putting in his one-hundred-percent into convincing Tony otherwise, so he took the initiative and marched up the stairs, by this point, following his instincts on where Stephen might be.

The cloak followed idly behind him.

“Stark, Strange is unlikely to want your attention at this moment,” Wong called after him, “he is feeling rather not himself.”

“I suppose I should’ve brought soup then, huh? How rude of me. I’ll just check and make sure he doesn’t need anything!”

“Stark!” The voice echoed behind him and remained unheeded as Tony grinned a little at the cloak.

“We’ll take care of him. I’m sure I can cheer him right up. We both know the Doc has a sweet tooth, don’t we?” he chuckled to the cloak, opening up a small bag he was carrying that was full of Halloween candy. “There’s something they say about the way to a man’s heart being through his stomach, right?”

The cloak shuddered a bit, not entirely encouraging, before planting itself in front of Stephen’s door and flaring out as though trying to ward him off. 

“What, you too? I thought you were my wingman! Aren’t we in this one together?”

Tony folded his arms as he stared at the fabric tilting his head in uncertainty. “Is he with someone else? Is that what’s going on?”

Did Stephen have a date? He would’ve assumed if that was the case Wong would’ve made no bones about it, but there was no noise from the room that indicated that Stephen was currently  _ entertaining _ anyone…

“C’mon, cloakie, buddy, pal… just let me in? Please?” The cloak’s collar shook pointedly, and Tony huffed. “Well, why not? It can’t be that bad or Wong would’ve just thrown me to the curb on my ass, so…”

The cloak persistently stayed where it was even with Tony's persistence.

"Oh, hey is that fabric softener?" Tony pointed to the right dramatically and the cloak flinched, its collar animatedly turning in the direction Tony had indicated.

He took the moment to jostle the handle of the door - surprisingly unlocked. The cloak seemed flustered if that was any way to describe an ornery piece of outerwear as Tony opened the door.

It slipped inside with him. 

The room was completely dark and he guessed by the cloak’s reluctance that this was definitely where Stephen was hiding out. Tony felt the folds of its collar pushing him up against the door as if telling him to leave but Tony gently pushed it to the side this time.

He could barely make out the crack of light coming in from the window, filtered city lights and something…  _ Squirming, or writhing _ , tentacle-like in the window’s very limited cast light.

Tony thought he was seeing something, but then he chalked it up to the Sanctum simply being the Sanctum.

"Stephen, bud? Are you in here?" The cloak seemed to recoil against him, frantically panicking and he grabbed it and leisurely walked in. He could feel it quivering against his body.

"What's gotten into you, red? Hey, Doc-"

"You really shouldn't be here Tony," he heard what almost sounded like Stephen, but heavily distorted in discordant cords.

“If that was the case, Wong would’ve dropped my ass to the pavement outside through a portal,” Tony reasoned, squinting as he tried to adjust to the low lighting. “What’s going on? He said you were sick or something? I brought you some Halloween candy to help out with that voracious appetite of yours,” he teased lightly, though he wasn’t altogether sure where the other man was.

“Tony, please leave…”

The distorted voice was really starting to get to him. It sounded like it was oozing out of the shadows all around him and trying to place specifically where it was coming from was proving to be a hell of a challenge.

“Ouch. Why so cold? I thought we were friends! Friends help each other when they’re not well! I can make some soup, get you some tea? There was this thing tonight and I was going to see if you wanted to go with me but since you’re sick we can-”

“You should go to your thing,” Stephen insisted, and Tony huffed a bit.

“I don’t want to go if you’re not coming with me! I’ll be bored senseless! I needed someone to drink with me and mock everyone!”

“Tony-”

“Stephen, what the hell is going on?”

There was a long silence before the voice seemed to take on a regretful cadence. “I don’t want you to see me like this.”

“It sounds like a hell of a cold, for sure. The magic flu?” Tony took a few more steps in and shrugged. “Let me help?”

"That's really not a good idea..." the voice seemed to shrink away and Tony could vaguely make out a pair of faintly illuminated eyes as he moved closer to the source of the noise.

The cloak continued to shudder in his grasp and Tony's foot brushed up against  _ something _ which immediately shrunk away as he nudged it.

"What's going on Doc? Come on, you know you can talk to me about it. I may not understand half of that mumbo-jumbo magic stuff but I'm usually a good ear, or at least I try to be," he joked softly.

"Of all the nights, Tony," Stephen started softly. Tony shook his head and squinted, making out the silhouettes of something bony and dishevelled moving over to pull the curtain closed.

"I'm waiting," Tony persisted, he took another step closer towards the shadows.

"-don't," Stephen warned him, but he was more afraid than he was threatening despite the horrifying cadence of his voice.

"Or else what? You'll eat my brains?" The closer Tony got, the more he could see moving parts in the shadows, boney spines, soft visceral sounds, tentacles slithering and whipping. He could really only see Stephen's eyes which seemed to be low to the ground as if the magus was huddled up.

“I’m beginning to question if someone hasn’t already done that, given you haven’t left yet despite so many warnings.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I wanna spend Halloween with you, doc. Is that so bad? Are you totally opposed to that?” he stepped tentatively closer, frowning as his eyes began to adjust to the darkness. “Can we… turn on a light? I’m not going to judge you, Stephen…”

“This goes way beyond judging, Tony. I’m a monster…”

“Okay, first off - we have a rule about talking about ourselves like that, and the rule is: don’t. Second, even if you  _ were _ a monster, that would just make you the most appropriate in the world for Halloween, right? ‘Tis the season and all that? C’mon… I can’t help you if I can’t see you. What’ve you buried yourself under, anyway?”

Tony adjusted his coat and in the faint blue light of his reactor, the writhing mass of bones, tentacles and horns seemed to become both more obvious and harder to interpret. He took a brief step back, tilting his head some. “... Stephen?”

A long, boney claw reached out towards him and Tony took a couple of quick breaths as he tried to calm himself before two fingers pinched his coat closed again, trembling in a rather familiar way. “Isn’t that enough for you?”

“... holy shit, you’re legitimately talking about being turned into a monster, huh? Can I help at all? What happened? Talk me through it, doc…”

"It's a curse, a sickness, once a year I have to wait out an entire night of this. It usually falls on other nights but tonight, in a delightfully thematic twist, it fell on Halloween," he mumbled in a hauntingly calm voice. "I can't leave this room, I've taken precautions to keep myself in here, just as similarly no one is supposed to be allowed in here." 

Those eyes turned on Tony, Stephen had a large cowl covering him and his neck extended to close in with a disturbingly fluid motion as those disgusting visceral noises sloshed with his appendages. "It's rather… disgraceful..."

Tony could make out massive horns, growths, more bone and many branches of gangly limbs. He couldn't quite tell what he was looking at in the lowlight and he was regretting now asking about his appearance.

A tentacle had come out to curl around Tony's ankle, a boney hand, black and tar-coloured in the light and Tony's heart dropped in his chest, almost horrified, frozen in place.

But he stood his ground.

Stephen slunk away again as if sensing his unrest and Tony definitely took a step forward. The tentacle withdrew as he did.

"I have to say - and I'm only saying this because relationships are built on trust n' all - you've seen better days." Stephen stayed quiet with that comment, and Tony's shaky breath could be heard in the room.

"... But hey, we all have off days." Tony carefully felt around until he sat down on one of the familiar couches in Stephen's study and he patted the cushion next to him. He was honest to god terrified, but this was also Stephen. He trusted the man was of sound mind and body not to hurt him, given  _ Wong so easily let him in. _

"Come sit, doc. Tell me more about it. Get it off your chest?"

"Tony… I know you don't want me to do that.."

"Hey - I don't care as long as whatever you have isn't contagious, I'm not worried, I trust you!" And he did! … but he was still pretty damn terrified.

“Tony…”

“C’mon. I’ve seen… okay well, listen, I’ve never seen anything quite as Lovecraftian-eldritch horror as you, but look. I came to ask you out. On a pseudo-date. And I’d be an asshole to have changed my mind because of something you can’t control-”

“Tony-”

“I mean it! So tell me what’s up! Why lock yourself up like this? It’s Halloween! The perfect night to scare some folks! Imagine chasing off some of the rogue’s gallery like this? They’d abandon New York entirely, for sure.”

“ _ Tony _ !” Stephen huffed, and for a moment it almost sounded like Stephen. The most intimidating, horrifying version of Stephen ever, but Stephen, nevertheless. “I drink blood. I am trying my best right now to-”

“-Vampires are sexy. Everyone knows that.” Tony interjected.

“I am not a vampire, Tony. As you pointed out, I am some kind of eldritch abomination. And I am doing my best not to feed off of you right now.”

“... listen. I dunno how that goes. And I’m not gonna pretend the idea doesn’t kind of scare the shit out of me, because what do you even feed with? Like, tentacles? Claws? Do you have fangs? Can I  _ please _ turn on a light so that my imagination can stop filling in the blanks of what’s going on in the shadows? Because things keep moving and I’m not sure if that’s the curtain in the corner or… anyway, but the point is! If you need some blood… I’ll bleed some for you. Then we can cuddle up… or something… and watch some horror movies?”

“... what is wrong with you…?” Stephen inquired after a long, pondering silence. “How is any of this okay?”

“It’s short-term? I mean, what, the sun comes up and you’re you again, right? And that’s the thing, doc. I like you.”

There was a long pause before Stephen answered again, just the sound of his estranged body parts flitting and contorting around in the darkness were all that could be heard.

"Something like that… yes."

"You wouldn't believe the shit I've been through, and likewise the people that stuck by me through my messes bud." Tony once again pet the spot beside him, trying to coax Stephen over. "You can have my blood, as long as you leave a little bit left in me to actually, you know, live with. So, how about it? Let's turn on a light?"

"No lights… please, let me have that." The cloak hovered closely to Tony but seemingly putting itself on the opposite side of the couch as Stephen started to migrate around the room.

There was a knocking at the door and everyone in the room froze for a moment as Wong shouted into the room, almost sounding like he was eating something.

"Stark, you still alive in there? Stephen, you didn't eat him, did you?" Wong hardly sounded concerned.

The sorcerer sighed dejectedly.

"Yeah - you better not be eating up all that extra candy I brought!" There were no other responses as Wong's footsteps moved away. Stephen was like a shadow, he stayed in the darkness and the only indication that Stephen had taken a seat next to him was the shifting on the cushions and the viscous noises beside him - and maybe the curtain of tentacles and limbs and body parts that seemed to fan out onto the floor around them like some massive patch-work horror.

He could hear Stephen’s 'breathing', shallow and ragged, see the glow from his eyes in the darkness and his reactor only vaguely illuminated whatever horrifying parts were next to him. Stephen seemed to be trying to keep himself on the other end and Tony hesitated a moment before reaching out to touch him, causing Stephen to flinch and shrink back further.

"-Don't..."

“How are you going to go all vampy on me without touching me? If you start sucking blood out my eyeballs or something, Stephen, I’m not sure we can do that. That’ll give me the heebie-jeebies.”

“You don’t already have them?”

“... well, I’m not going to lie to you, when a self-professed blood-sucking monster is sitting in the shadows refusing to turn on a light I definitely feel like I’m one of those idiots in a horror movie that I would usually yell at. But it’s you. So I’m gonna shake it off, and it’ll be fine.”

“You don’t have to do this, Tony.”

“Maybe not. But I want to. So how’s it go?”

“There are two ways,” Stephen sighed and it sounded rather like what he would anticipate the wailing of a banshee to sound like. A shiver ran through his body. “Since you keep making cracks about vampires, I do have fangs… but that might be… weirdly intimate? And… well, anyway. The other option is… one of my appendages has both a numbing agent and a little siphon… it would pierce your wrist, but you would hardly feel more than a needle-like prick.”

“Oh, I can handle more than a needle-like prick if you know what I mean-”

“Is that really an appropriate joke to be making right now?”

“Have you ever known me to be appropriate?”

“When the need arises,” Stephen responded and Tony could swear he heard the man’s eyes rolling. Literally. It was a disgustingly wet sound.

“So either you go all vampire on me, or you go all tentacle monster on me? Man, this has to be  _ someone’s _ Halloween wet dream…”

One of Stephen's tentacles seemed to wander idly and he felt a boney hand on his wrist. Tony shivered and closed his eyes.

"Let's go with the fangs then, for now, chalk it up to the weirdest 'first kiss' ever in the history of people I've dated," Tony scooted closer to Stephen, turning his back to the abomination beside him.

Stephen leaned forward quietly, and Tony could feel the sorcerer's breath against his neck, warm but there was something oddly uncomfortable about it - a humid clamminess. He almost heard the man's jaws open before he intervened.

"Ok, hold up one sec - you don't just chomp down, amigo, make this a little more intimate, you know? Some touches, soft caresses, that sort of thing? I'm not just a dinner date here and by that, I mean I'm not your meal."

"You know I never took you for being the wine-and-dine style, more of a hit and run..."

"Wow, you know I'm actually offended by that, hurt, truly," Tony looked over his shoulders and regretted it, seeing the glowing eyes and pale white fangs catching the reflected light off of his reactor.

His head snapped forward again and he leaned into Stephen as he felt scaly tendrils wrap around his wrist. Long boney hands, suckers, something of a - what, centipede leg?

He tensed up as something sharp grazed over his neck and it was the most unearthly sensation of being so terrified and so turned on at the same time that he'd ever felt.

"If you need me to stop at any point, let me know-"

"Oh for god's sake Stephen, we went over this." One of the suckers grazed over his neck and he felt it latch on, it was itchy like nettle and he wanted to swat it away and scratch it. There was a sharp pinprick and the tendril moved away before his neck became flushed, hot and numb.

He never felt the sharp pinch of Stephen's fangs penetrate his neck, but he did feel the wetness of his maw and the pressure of them pushing deep into his neck. The cold air-kissed the moist part of his skin as Stephen pulled him into his amalgamated form and there were various appendages wrapped around Tony, bundling him against his body.

“B… best cuddles ever?” Tony attempted, leaning his head to one side to make it easier, though the numbness in his neck had permeated a lot of the area, making for a bizarre sensation in his throat as his numbed vocal cords left him almost slurring slightly. He felt only the briefest of vibrations when he spoke.

In contrast, the rest of his body felt every texture of Stephen’s unknown form. He felt the slick, almost plastic-y smoothness of what might have been a tentacle under one hand, an oddly leather-like texture over one of the clawed hands. Nothing felt particularly slimy, though and he appreciated that - at least, not anymore. It had felt briefly slimy and wet over his neck with the one tentacle, but that had been taken over by Stephen’s rather busily working lips.

“... ‘s that make your lips and tongue numb, too? Like… can you numb yourself?”

Stephen made a little grumbling noise in response, though he didn’t pull away, and Tony gave a soft hum in response, testing the boundaries of his numbness. In a couple of minutes, the numbness became lightheadedness, but the finger that had pressed to his wrist held a little tighter and Stephen pulled away with a deep, contented purring noise.

“... ‘Sup tentacles? We good…? You all done ravishing me?”

“You’re really playing with fire aren’t you?”

“Playing with tentacles,” Tony responded cheerfully. “We can save the other ravishing for another time, though…”

Stephen began to slowly withdraw, and Tony held tight to the boney hand on his wrist. “Hey… I’m kidding. If you don’t want to I just…”

“You haven’t even asked me out properly.”

“How am I supposed to do that? You keep trying to push me away! All I wanted was to spend Halloween with you, Becky with the good cheekbones,” Tony pouted a bit, despite being fairly certain it was too dark to see.

“You’re still here. It’s still Halloween. You still haven’t asked me out,” Stephen responded lowly.

“If I ask you out now am I asking you out, or am I asking cursed you out? Is this all Beauty and the Beast? If I kiss you now, will it break the curse? God! I can’t believe I didn’t ask! Will true love’s kiss break the curse, Stephen?”

Tony tried to lean into Stephen once more but the numbness apparently spread further than expected until nearly half of his body was inoperable from the neck down and things then felt really difficult to deal with.

He found himself sliding to the floor real quickly -  _ fuck. _

Thankfully one of Stephen's odd - read: creepy - tentacle-not-arms caught him with ease as he rag-dolled.

"Should I be offended by that question?" came the quiet voice.

"Oh c'mon give a guy a break, I'm doing my best here," Tony defended. "I brought you candy!"

"How kind of you," the sarcasm rolled off Stephen's voice like melted butter. There was some amusement hidden under all that freakish reverberation in his vocals and that took the edge off of everything.

"Right here," Tony lifted his right arm and tapped his lips, looking up and simply seeing those glowing orbs. "Come on, doc," he whined softly.

"I'm enjoying watching you beg like this, just for the record."

"And you said I was getting ahead of myself," Tony let out an exasperated sigh, the fear starting to dissolve though slight discomfort remained.

Tony felt himself hauled into Stephen's side again - and it was weird, but it was better than being pushed away. He laid a hand on one of the feelers around his midsection and softly caressed it, a part of him trying to picture it was Stephen's arm and how this could all possibly feel when he went back to normal.

There was a silence that permeated the room, and it wasn't long before the cloak felt comfortable enough to join the two huddled together, laying itself over Tony's recumbent form. "What could I possibly have to lose from trying things out, I guess..."

"Well, your sanity for one. But if you can go to weird fucked-up eldritch realms, turn into this and still have your mental state, I think you're good there."

“And what about you? How’s your mind, thinking of kissing something like me?”

“What did I tell you about dehumanizing yourself, Stephen? You’re still you. Clearly. This is just a temporary condition, then you’ll be back to your usual cantankerous self, I’m sure. But we can try this whole kiss thing, right? I mean, if it’s magic stuff, you’re all about magic, a magical kiss-”

“Tony, are you trying to suggest your kisses are just that powerful? That you’re my ‘true love’ or whatnot…?”

“Can’t hurt to try, right doc?”

“Was this your plan this evening anyway?”

“... maybe. Is it so awful if it was?”

“You’re really something, you know that?”

“Are you really going to leave me hanging like this?” Tony whined softly, leaning against an uncomfortable writhing mass he didn’t want to think about too much. “If you feel bad about it you can kiss me when you’re you again, too…”

“Someone’s getting greedy,” Stephen chuckled a low, crackling laugh.

“Doc, are you really gonna make me beg?”

“Are you really going to beg a monster to kiss you?”

“Would you stop- mph!” Stephen’s lips felt cracked and leathery against his own and it was a bit of an awkward movement. It wasn’t exactly a sweet, romantic kiss, but he could appreciate Stephen’s attempts at tenderness, even as a fang lightly brushed his lip - clearly the man wasn’t used to kissing anyone in this form, but he wasn’t going to complain when he finally got what he wanted.

The kiss was brief, and despite being a little on the awkward side the butterflies in Tony’s stomach still recognized the creature he was sitting with as Stephen - and were ecstatic. He sighed softly and leaned in against Stephen’s… well, whatever it was.

“... thank you.”

“Guess you’re not my true love, huh?”

“Okay, well, thanks for that, asshole.”

Stephen’s laughter rang in Tony’s ears, not its usual pleasant laugh, but still something full of mirth regardless.

"So I'm not allowed to say anything self depreciative but of course, the great Tony Stark is, that how it works, hmm?" Stephen rumbled with more amusement.

"Well, yeah, you do know that's a pet-name, Stephen."

"And I hope you mean that as more of an endearing sentiment rather than considering this form I've donned one that implies I'm a domesticated beast...?"

"Whoa, harsh! I'm not that mean - ok, well maybe I am, but that's not what I meant!" Tony looked up at Stephen, staring at this face in the light of his reactor.

"I know." Another light chuckle and Tony felt his insides melt, fuck - even with that chilling demonic voice it was enough to send butterflies scattering through his chest. He half wondered if Stephen could see him easier in the dark, which - yeah maybe he probably could. So the sorcerer could probably see the tinge of red on Tony's face because the engineer sure felt it.

"So, why not wether this whole storm with some horror movies, eh doc?"

"I'd like that. Are you entirely sure-"

"-Nope, actually I changed my mind, I don't know why I even asked." His voice was laden with sarcasm as Tony joked, making an effort to move to emphasize his point but Stephen squeezed him tighter not allowing him that chance.

He laughed, falling back into Stephen, pulling up a holo window to start flicking through the channels to see what he could stream.

"Cheesy horror movies and candy it is. Though I can't promise Wong hasn't eaten all the goodies."

"I think I've got all the sweetness I need right here, for now."

"I can't give you any more blood Stephen."

"That's not what I meant..." 

Tony smiled, pulling the cloak up to his chest and hugging it, he felt the fabric gently squeeze him and the two spent the rest of the night watching movies until they'd both fallen asleep together.

* * *

Tony woke in the morning with a slight crick in his side and the weight of a head resting against his own. He vaguely realized he was upright, but a sliver of sunlight shone through the window to at least help clear up some of his confusion about his whereabouts. One of Stephen’s arms was wrapped loosely around his waist, and Tony could only assume it was Stephen’s shoulder his head was leaning against. The other was breathing deeply - not quite snoring, but something on the snoring side of a purr, anyway.

He moved his hand to rest it atop Stephen’s gently, and the other man shifted slightly, curling his second arm around Tony and squeezing him a little. “Morning…”

The voice that spoke was rough with sleep, but far from the rather horrific voice of the night before. It was pretty sexy, honestly - gruff and deep, resonating through the chest he was pressed against, and Tony smiled.

“Morning yourself, handsome. How are you doing? Back to your usual frumpy self?”

“Are you insulting my wardrobe, Stark? The cloak?” the sorcerer responded with a soft chuckle, straightening his head out a bit and managing to pull Tony in closer against him as he sat up properly.

Tony turned around in his hold, facing him. It was nice to be able to see the man he'd come to spend some time with since last night. It seemed like enduring a  _ minor _ inconvenience coupled with persistence had drawn them closer, and he couldn't be more thankful for that.

His hands gently smoothed over Stephen's shoulders, moving up to the man's cheeks as he appreciated seeing the sorcerer he'd become so smitten with back, and restored to his former familiar glory.

"Not like you could really do anything if I was."

"Tony-" the engineer's lips silenced his protest with a soft but forceful morning kiss, pulling away and grinning.

"I think I can deal with the once-a-year curse thing, I mean… the whole biting thing was pretty damn hot," he exposed his shoulders to Stephen - massive holes in the side of the engineer's neck, red and swollen, and even some sucker marks around his wrist to add to it.

"You really think that's the least of my banes?"

Tony went quiet for a moment and it was almost as if one could hear the crickets chirping around him.

“... you realize I’m not exactly a shiny image of perfection myself, right?” he stated quietly. “Formerly known as the Merchant of Death, an image that takes a lot of work to get rid of, constantly on the government’s bad side, I drink when I’m stressed, and when I’m happy, and really just more than I probably should, plus PTSD, trypophobia stemming from a few different things. Been accused of not being a team player, and being a narcissist… so, I mean, if I’m expecting perfection then I’m really not bringing a lot to the plate to be worth that, am I?

“Thing is… I’m not looking for perfection. Hell, perfection is boring and at times obnoxious and self-righteous, and I should know, I worked with him. So, guess what? I don’t care. I like you, in a big way. A lot. I was going to ask you out last night, but I had fun staying in with you anyway, for the most part. I was hoping I could sneak you into a suit and show you off, but sometimes things just don’t work out as planned,” Tony shrugged. 

“You’re here now, though. So unless you’re trying to tell me you’re not interested in a relationship with me - which, hey, reasonable I guess. I mean, I’m one of the world’s most eligible bachelors, but you do you - then you’re not going to scare me off with magic stuff. I knew you were mister magic pants getting into this and it hasn’t stopped me from enjoying your company yet.”

“... are you done?” Stephen inquired with a raised eyebrow as Tony finished his rambling, leaving the man to huff slightly.

“I should keep going, just for that!”

“Shut up, Stark,” Stephen’s voice was filled with warmth and humour as he stared at the other, “honestly. You have a lot of things you’ll have to learn, and I won’t always have time to spend with you…”

“That’s any different from now because…?” Tony led with a smirk.

“I’m just saying. I can’t dedicate all my time to you or to a relationship. And I expect you have a similar situation to deal with?”

“Well, of course.”

"Well, let's try things out then. If we can last more than a week I'll know that this relationship has some potential," Stephen chuckled, "and we'll really know if I can tolerate all of that bluster with you."

"You already know what I have to say about that," Tony grinned, leaning in to steal another kiss away from Stephen before pressing his forehead into the other man's with a soft sigh. "But with that you know I'll really put things to the test now, not at all for the sake of sabotaging anything, but you know me," Tony grinned widely.

"I'd be pretty disappointed with anything else, Tony," the sorcerer grinned right back.

**Author's Note:**

> This story was co-written by two authors from start to finish. You can find us on Twitter:
> 
> [Amy (Foxglove)](https://twitter.com/marvelwizardmom)  
[Astral (Bravehardt)](https://twitter.com/Kraionis)


End file.
